Note to Readers: I wrote this blog on Saturday and Sunday before I had seen the video released by a reporter for The New Yorker. He was right there inside the Capitol Building as it was ransacked by the riotous mob. Until I saw that video, it was not clear to me just how bad this invasion of the People's House had been. As a journalist, I always try not to use inflammatory words or exaggerated examples and try to put things in perspective and context. Please read what I had written prior to seeing The New Yorker video. My changed perspective and the video is at the end of the blog.
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The Peaceful Transition of Power #155
By Hank Silverberg
As he exited Independence Hall at the close of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in September of 1787, America's most renown scientist, printer, editor and elder statesman,
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"Well Doctor, what kind of government do we have, a Republic or a Monarchy?"
He was frail, 80 years old and just three years from his death, but at 5' 9' and stout, Franklin still attracted attention and respect. He gave an answer that echoes across our politics 234 years later.
"It's a Republic, if you can keep it."
The 55 men who were inside that hall, among them James Madison, John Jay, Roger Sherman and George Washington, had created a masterpiece framework, though it was not perfect. It would need to be amended ten times by 1791 with The Bill of Rights, and 17 more times in the next 200 years, including the 13th Amendment, to finally abolish slavery in 1865. Now, in 2021, the basic structure of our Democratic government has held up quite well.
The three branches are designed to balance each other out and spread the power to govern among many.
This was a radical and liberal concept in the 18th Century. It had never been tried with success before.
A cornerstone of the concept centered on the "peaceful transition of power" from one group of leaders to the next.
It is perhaps the most uniquely American part of our history. The United States of America, which was born from a radical and bloody revolution from the left, has had a peaceful transition of our leadership ever since. There was one disasterous exception in 1861.
It took the four year carnage of the Civil War to ram the concept home. A Government "of the people, by the people and for the people" as Lincoln said, was not going to perish. It's still not perfect, but it works.
From time to time we have had protests that turned violent. The unrest of 1967-68 comes to mind, including the '68 Democratic National Convention.
And sometimes the Government itself has been the source of that violence. The assault by local police on protestors at the Pettus Bridge on that Bloody Sunday in Selma in 1965, which became the turning point in the Civil Rights Movement, stands out.
How Selma's 'Bloody Sunday' Became a Turning Point in the Civil Rights Movement - HISTORY
The National Guard shooting that left four students dead at Kent State University (1970) looms in the collective memory of the boomer generation. But it played a key roll in turning the average American away from supporting a useless war in Southeast Asia.
And a generation earlier, in 1932, there had been use of federal troops against the Bonus Army. Twenty thousand World War I veterans had gathered in shanty towns put up in D.C. during the Great Depression seeking the bonus they had been promised. It took mounted troops and tanks to disperse them but it helped set in motion the election of FDR and the creation of the progressive New Deal which our country still benefits from today.
Somehow the events of the last two weeks have again put us at a low point. This time, misinformed and disgruntled Americans, confronted with another economic downturn caused by a ferocious pandemic, attacked the very foundations of our Republic--the people's house--on Capitol Hill.
What makes this different? It was not a public divided over a moral issue like slavery. Nor were they revolting against an unjust war, or a broken promise. This time they were encouraged and led on by an incompetent con-man who acted more like Mad King George III than like a firebrand revolutionary such as Samuel Adams. This time it was led by a "wanna- be" authoritarian who wanted to stay in power no matter what and who had little knowledge of the writings and warnings of men like George Mason or Alexander Hamilton.
And we are learning he may have had help from a fifth column, not one of foreign influence, but one within the very ranks of our elected representatives and all members of the Republican Party.
Thankfully, with the help of a free press, some of
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| (Virginia National Guard at U.S. Capitol, Photo: Staff Sgt. Bryan Myhr ) | |
America may have lost its way under Donald Trump. His departure alone will not rid us of this disease.
In Congress right now and in many state legislatures across the country, there are people just like him. They followed him into politics and they have infected our political system. They know very little about what our Founding Fathers really had in mind and they often distort history for propaganda purposes.
A firm example of that is Congresswoman Lauren Boehert (R, Colorado), who has often espoused a pro-police, law and order message. It seems the voters who sent her to Congress missed the fact that she had been arrested for a series of petty crimes and had failed to show up in court a few times to answer the charges.
Colorado's Lauren Boebert has a history of minor arrests, court no-shows (denverpost.com)
This is the same Congresswoman who has been accused of giving tours the day before the assault on the Capitol--tours that MAY have included people who participated in the insurrection the next day.
She may be the worst of the bunch, but many Republican members of Congress continued to support the myth of a "rigged election" long after numerous court cases and recounts concluded beyond doubt that it wasn't. Some of them also spoke on the same podium as Trump just before he urged his followers to "....fight like Hell and if you don't fight like Hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."
You've already seen or heard what happened next.
"So we’re going to, we’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, I love Pennsylvania Avenue, and we’re going to the Capitol and we’re going to try and give… The Democrats are hopeless. They’re never voting for anything, not even one vote. But we’re going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones, because the strong ones don’t need any of our help, we’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country."
Donald Trump Speech "Save America" Rally Transcript January 6 - Rev
That's when the crowd started up Pennsylvania Avenue. Many of them kept right on going through the barricades where they overwhelmed the ill- prepared Capitol Police, and went right into the building.
So yes, Donald Trump incited the crowd. But he was not alone. Even after the violence, when the building had been secured, six Republican senators and 121 members of the House voted to object to the Electoral College count and therefore continuing the myth that there was something rigged about the votes of 81 million Americans.
Here's something new. Several media outlets have tracked down the organizers of the Trump rally that was booked as a grass roots effort. Well, it wasn't. A number of those organizers had previously worked on the Trump campaign and they were the ones who applied for the permits for the Ellipse and organized the event.
Trump allies helped plan, promote rally that led to Capitol attack - ABC News (go.com)
So it was not an impromptu grass roots event set up by frustrated voters.
Across the country, a number of state legislators are under fire for either participating in the actual storming of the Capitol or expressing support for it. One man, who had just been elected State Delegate in West Virginia, actually joined the mob and was captured on camera inside the building. He resigned when he was arrested a few days later.
A Virginia State Senator, Amanda Chase, who is currently running for Governor, attended the rally. She is now under pressure to resign and may lose her committee assignments in the General Assembly because she expressed support for the rioters. She is unapologetic.
Virginia Senate Democrats move to censure state Sen. Amanda Chase | 8News (wric.com)
All of this leaves a big mess for Joe Biden.
Hopefully he will be able to turn things around fast enough to send both the un-relentless Covid-19 virus to extinction and send the dangerous racists and anarchists back into the caves or under their rocks where they belong.
But Mr. Franklin's caution in the answer to that 1787 question still rings true. We must be vigilant against those who would threaten or undermine our long tested institutions.
An example of the difficulty faced by Biden can be seen in this poll.
A majority of Republicans polled (52%) blame Joe Biden for the actions of those who stormed the Capitol on January 6th. Only 28% blame Trump. The other 26% blame the Republicans who voted against certifying the votes.
Among all registered voters, 55% say Trump bears a great deal to blame.
But here is the part of the poll that should trouble us all the most. Forty-five percent of Republicans surveyed APPROVED of the storming of the Capitol and 30% would call those who did so, "patriots".
The Desert
Even the desert has not escaped the last assaults on our planet from the Trump administration. As the days of Trump's presidency counted down, the Bureau of Land Management pushed for significant rollbacks in the renewable energy conservation plan for the California desert. That includes 20,000 acres in Death Valley and the land that surrounds Joshua Tree National Park and the Mohave National Preserve. The land is critical for wildlife like foxes.
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| (A Kit Fox in the desert Photo @David Lamfrom) |
Biden has already indicated he will sign a series of Executive Orders this week undoing some of Trump's mess. That includes rejoining the Paris Climate Change Accord. But it could take much longer to eradicate Trumpism and chase the racists and anti-Semites back into the periphery of our society.
Trivia:
Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan and Richard Nixon are off the hook. Donald J. Trump, is now, by far, the worst of the 45 men who have held that job. He is now regulated to the footnotes of history.
A trivia question for a future generation might be:
"Who was the only U.S. President to be impeached twice?"
Or maybe,
"He was a one-term President who was later convicted of several crimes and sent to prison. Who was he?"
Beyond that, historians may have a harder time assessing Trump in the future than any political figure from our past. It seems Trump had a habit of ripping up documents that are supposed to be archived for posterity.
Will Trump's Mishandling of Records Leave a Hole in History? - Bloomberg
Trump has been negligent (what else is new?) about a law requiring that White House records be preserved. Under that law, a president is supposed to seek advice from the National Archivist and consult Congress before destroying any records. Many of the documents were also not transferred to a digital archive as required by law.
This loss of information may be massive. For example, the Obama administration complied with the law leaving 30 million pages of paper documents and 250 terabytes of electronic records. So, we may never find out just how incompetent, neglectful or criminal Trump has been over the last four years, and historians may know more about the debate at the 1787 Constitutional Convention than about routine policy meetings in the Trump White House.
For your enjoyment:
And finally, if you missed it: January is apparently "Sea Shanty" month. I'm not sure who declared that but the shanties are trending all over the internet this week. Since I like them so much, I am joining the crowd. Sea Shanties were traditional melodies sung acapella that allowed sailors to work in unison on everyday tasks. They have been changed many times over the years. Here's one of my favorites. This is the group "Fisherman's Friend" at the Cambridge Folk Festival in 2001 with their version of "The Sloop John B."
Copies of my book "The Campaign" are below. Or you can buy a copy by emailing me at:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084Q7K6M5/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
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